Microwave popcorn products are tremendously popular. At present, in the U.S., over 70 different brands of microwave popcorn products are available. Generally, such popcorn products comprise an expandable paper bag containing a charge or matrix of popcorn, fat and salt. A wide variety of products have been developed, including improvements in bag design and variations in salt and fat levels. Flavored fat popcorn products have even been developed, e.g., butter flavored. Improvements have also been made in the kernel popcorn itself, although such improvements have involved primarily, attention to variety selection and post harvesting handling to insure that the percentage of unpopped kernels remain low.
Another approach to provide new and improved microwave products is to provide flavored or coated microwave popcorn products. These products involve including a packet of flavored coating, e.g., dried cheese powder or caramel, which can be sprinkled over the popcorn after completion of the popping step. Again, while popular, the necessity for the extra step of cheese or caramel addition is perceived by the consumer as being inconvenient. To avoid this inconvenient step, two distinct approaches have been taken; namely, developing a self coating package and developing an internally flavored kernel popcorn.
In the packaging approach, the objective is to have a chamber housing the coating material which is separate from the chamber wherein the popcorn is popped. Ideally, the barrier or membrane separating the coating and popcorn would automatically breach after completion of, or late during the popping step. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,713 (issued Jun. 24, 1986 to D. C. Burdette) entitled "Microwave Food Packets Capable of Dispersing a Food Additive During Heating" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,246 (issued Jul. 25, 1989 to Maxwell et al.) entitled "Dual Compartment Food Package." While conceptually interesting, the present level of packaging development has not yet provided a commercial product having a packaging design which is consistently inexpensive and adequately performs as desired.
The second approach is to develop internally flavored kernel popcorn and thus avoid the inconvenience of a separate flavor coating step or the engineering limitations of packaging design. Infusion of flavor into the kernel popcorn has been proposed. The popcorn shell, however, provides a formidable barrier to diffusion, especially for larger organic molecules such as are required for more complex or complete flavors. Consequently, notwithstanding the self congratulatory teachings concerning the effectiveness of infusion, such techniques are of limited practical value.
While the various microwave popcorn products are popular, it would be desirable to have even greater variety in texture, flavors and to have flavored snack products of even greater convenience. To this end, the art includes products which comprise pellets which puff upon microwave heating in substitution for popcorn. Such puffable pieces are generally referred to as "half products" in the puffed snack food art. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,551 (issued Feb. 17, 1981 to Van Hulle et al.) entitled "Food Composition and Method for Preparing Cheese-Coated Puffed Snacks Upon Microwave Heating" disclosed such a food Product. The product therein described comprises a plurality of puffable pellets matrixed in a flavored fat coating. Upon microwave heating, the pellet importantly, gradually expands to form puffed pieces which are covered with a flavored coating. Similar food products, but having a caramel coating, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,250 (issued Oct. 11, 1983 to Van Hulle et al.) entitled "Food Composition and Method For Preparing CheeseCoated Puffed Snacks Upon Microwave Heating." Both the '551 and the '250 patents specifically teach avoiding using popcorn due to its unsafe popping characteristics which can splatter the coating material.
While useful, such food product comprising slowly puffable pellets of microwave puffable dough poses certain disadvantages unforeseen at the time of their development; namely, the development of microwave bags for popcorn noted above. In view of the popularity and present familiarity of such microwave popcorn products, it would be desirable to provide substitutes for the present popcorn charge.
One problem with substituting puffable pellets for popcorn in microwave snack preparation is the lack of a sound cue for completion of the microwave heating step. Microwave ovens vary widely in their heating performance due to differences in design, power rating, age, etc. Product preparation instructions thus necessarily give a range of heating times for a given product and rely upon the consumer to determine the desirable end of the heating step. The consumer must rely upon an auditory clue, such as the time interval between popping. Some microwave ovens even have sound detection circuits which automatically conclude the heating step upon cessation or reduction in popping sounds. Pellets which only gradually expand do not make the necessary popping sound and the consumer must rely upon visual clues. Unfortunately, even distinct visual clues are of no value when the pellets are confined in opaque paper popping bags.
One reference teaches coating a puffable pellet of ungelatinized starchy material, e.g., rice, with a thermostable film, e.g., egg albumin, whereupon external heating, (i.e., in contrast to the internal heating produced by microwave heating) the starch is gelatinized simultaneous to setting of the exterior coating. (See Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 294056/87 entitled "Easily Expansible Food Material" by Katsumi Kataoka). At some point, the buildup in internal steam pressure causes failure of the film coating and puffing of the pellet. However, one disadvantage of such product is that egg albumin is very sensitive to bacterial contamination, and non-enzymatic browning at intermediate water activities.
Given the state of the microwave snack product art, there is a continuing need for new and useful food products useful in the consumer microwave preparation of snack products.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide new and useful food products for the at-home consumer preparation by microwave heating of puffed snack foods.
Another object of the present invention is to provide puffable pellets which pop upon microwave heating.
Another object of the present invention is to provide poppable pellets comprising cereal grains and/or flavors other than popcorn.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an internally flavored popcorn having an artificial replacement husk which pops upon microwave heating in a conventional microwave popcorn popping bag.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a puffable pellet which upon microwave heating provides an audible sound to cue termination of the heating step.
Surprisingly, the above objectives can be realized and superior microwave snack products can be provided which can be flavored and which exhibit an audible sound upon popping. Thus, the present invention provides an improvement in the art of microwave snack products by providing microwave poppable pellets useful in popcorn bags in substitution for conventional popcorn. The half products comprise pellets fabricated from puffable farinaceous materials and further essentially comprise an exterior skin of defined methylcellulose materials at coverage levels sufficient to provide defined thicknesses and tensile strength. The microwave poppable pellets are combined with microwave expandable popping bags to provide consumer microwave snack product articles.